Thursday, December 6, 2012

SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0 Flash Drive 64GB

Why You'll Dig it:

We’ve always known how quick solidstate memory can be, but it wasn’t until USB 3.0 that ultra-speed storage became available in a highly portable package. The latest product we have on the market is the 64GB SanDisk Extreme USB Flash Drive. This turbocharged drive is also available in 32GB ($94.99) and 16GB ($64.99) capacities.

The SanDisk Extreme is a stylish flash drive, with a glossy and matte black exterior that tapers to a fine edge on the back. The business end of the device slides into and out of the housing with the flip of a switch, so you can keep the USB 3.0 port clean when it’s not in use.

With its 64GB capacity, this drive can handle a ton of data, thousands of uncompressed WAV files and significantly more FLAC or MP3 files, hundreds of high-resolution RAW image files and thousands of JPEGs, dozens of hours of standard-def video and even a handful of uncompressed HD movies. But the possibilities don’t stop there. If you upgrade to Windows 8 Enterprise, due out in October, the Windows To Go feature lets you boot and run the OS from a flash drive. SanDisk’s speedy memory stick and Windows To Go is the next best thing to
adding an SSD to every PC you use.

Video Review (Geekanoids)

Where To Get it?

SanDisk also made security a priority for the Extreme. SanDisk SecureAccess creates a password-protected folder that uses 128-bit AES encryption to keep your most sensitive documents away from prying eyes. Just drag and drop your important data to the folder to lock it down. SanDisk also gives Extreme users an extra 2GB of cloud storage, courtesy of YuuWaa (www.yuuwaa.com), which lets you access a handful of important files from any web browser.

With its USB 3.0 interface, you’d expect this flash drive to be quick on the draw, so we ran CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 to see just how quick. Using a 100MB test file size, the SanDisk Extreme scored 197.8MBps on the sequential read test and 181.2MBps on the sequential write
test. We fished out a generic USB 2.0 drive we’ve been using for a couple years, and it scored 25.18MBps and 8.8MBps in the sequential read and write tests, respectively. Needless to say, the SanDisk Extreme USB Flash Drive is a more than suitable replacement.